The weeks speed up as the clock winds down

Day 93

I've just finished my second to last week in London *sniff sniff*

Last Monday we watched an old silent film called Trapped by the Mormons. It was made in the early 1900's, and features a dangerous Mormon missionary with mesmeric powers, who goes around spiriting innocent young maidens away to his holy city in the west, and the films particular duped damsel in distress is only saved by the timely actions of her dashing and debonair fiance. It was so ridiculous it was hilariously funny. We were laughing through the whole thing, especially the lines about "all conquering manhood". It's sad that people really thought the Mormons were such awful charlatans and kidnappers (occasionally even murderers). However, as we learned in class this week, due to a brilliant campaign of Mormon sports team and musical performance groups, their reputation has vastly improved since the era of silent film.

Tuesday night I went to Spamalot with a friend. It's a musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I remember a discussion with my friends in high school when we first heard it was coming out, and since Holy Grail was the source of endless delight and quotage within our group, we decided it would be awesome to go to Broadway to see it, and even whimsically proposed a series of elaborate plans, codenamed Operation: Killer Rabbit. Well, four or five years later, Operation: Killer Rabbit has been executed, haha. It was fun. It was actually a well put together performance with good music. They also used projectors on the curtains and parts of the stage, which I've never seen before.

Wednesday we went to the Cabinet War Rooms. It's a big underground bunker where the Prime Minister Winston Churchhill, his War Cabinet, and a number of staff members lived underground during the bombing of London during WWII. It was kept secret for years, and is located under a building near Westminster, where they sneakily managed to bring in enough concrete to poor a slab six feet thick under the building and over the bunker to protect from blasts.

This is the door, cleverly disguised as a toilet, which leads to the room where Churchill had an encoded phone that let him speak directly to President Roosevelt in the U.S. Even many of the people living in the bunker never knew about the phone.
One of the many wall size maps that can be found in the Cabinet War Rooms. This shows the coast of Africa. They used to use pins to mark locations and hold notes to the map.
A close up of that African coast shows how many pins were used in just this one spot over the course of the war.

Churchill had personal rooms here (as well as a dining room and kitchen) and he made many radio broadcasts to the country from his armchair. However, he only spent the night two or three times, though apparently, being something of a risk taker, he would often go up on the roof of the building over the bunker to watch the bombings in progress.

I thought it was really fun that the donation box at the Cabinet War Rooms was full of American money.

In the evening we went and saw Handel's Messiah performed at the Barbican Theatre. I really enjoyed it, particularly the parts that I knew, like the Hallelujah chorus (where we all stood, in honor of the first performance, attended by the king, when he rose from his seat and remained standing through the Hallelujah chorus), also the bit about "he shall be called wonderful, counselor, the everlasting God", and the "and with his stripes we are healed." Don't ask me why I know those in particular, but I do.

Thursday we went to see Stomp! It's basically a percussive group that uses common every day items as their instruments. Trashcans, push brooms, paint brushes, buckets, kitchen sinks, plastic tubes, match boxes, inner tubes, etc. It's really cool. And it was fun too, because the percussionists interacted with each other. The stage is set up to look sort of like a ghetto area, and they acted out the part of good natured teasing and goading within a group of friends. Like, "Hey, look what I can do, what have you go? Haha, pathetic man!" All without speaking, of course.

Friday we went to the London Temple. It's smaller than I expected, and right now the spire has a lot of scaffolding on it because they are (finally) getting the Angel Moroni put on top this next week. It's a simple temple, with pretty English garden grounds.

There were a lot of us, so I actually ended up doing confirmations in a children's play room instead of the official Confirmation Room. We did a bunch of baptisms too. The sole guy in our group ended up doing all of the baptisms, and when you consider that about thirty of us went and we each did ten baptisms... yeah, poor guy. He was trying not to laugh during mine, but it was a struggle for both of us. I got "Jane Bond" and then "Mary Potter"; aka, the female versions of the book characters James Bond and Harry Potter. What are the chances of that?
The Visitor's Centre is also new, and they pointed out the mural, painted by a local artist, to us. If you look at the earth, you may be able to see that unlike the murals for other Christus statues, this earth is turned so that England is facing up.
I was glad I got to go. It was really a very sweet experience.

That evening I went to another Brittania Singles dance and the Hyde Park chapel with some of the girls from the program. It was fun, and much needed. Everyonce in a while it feels good to just dance.

Saturday I stayed in all day writing papers. Eww.

Sunday we made it to church without incident. Despite having only 5 kids in Primary, it was crazy. The two little girls (who have always been quiet and perfect) suddenly decided to come out of their shells and ran around stomping on the stage, spinning circles, and shouting to me and the other BYU girl. The two older boys sat sulkily the whole time. We did make it through Nativity play and the songs a few times though.

They are absolutely adorable though, aren't they? From left to right, Rachel, me, Shania, and Sedoni (sp?).
Playing bus.
Being snowmen
We finished off the evening by watching that Christmas classic, Elf, with Will Ferrell. I have to admit, I didn't like it much the first time, but on subsequent viewings have enjoyed it immensely. It's just so funny and ridiculous. His character is just to far out of the accepted norms that it's slightly awkward, but endearing and funny. I giggled uncontrollably through the whole movie.

Acquaintance with a few very famous personages

Day 54

It's kind of weird in England, because here it is only October, and they're already gearing up for Christmas. Halloween isn't much of a holiday here (which is sad to the point of almost being a crime, because Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I love carving pumpkins) and obviously, they don't have Thanksgiving (that's sort of a pilgrim and indian holiday) so it's on to Christmas. I hear November 5 gets fireworks though (that's the day Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament with the "Gunpowder Plot").

Sunday was the Primary program. The kids here are so cute! There's only like 8 of them though, so instead of 30 kids with a couple sentences each, they each have about 5 parts a paragraph long. I was conducting the music, and it went alright. I think the kids got really nervous, because they completely missed the first entrance, and rushed a lot on the first two songs, but then they got better. And I figure, no one really cares how good the Primary kids are. They just think they're cute anyway.

Monday we watched a movie called The Gathering Storm about Winston Churchill. It was really quite good. We also went to a reading of a play called Joyful Noise. It's about Handel, and the situations surrounding his writing of Messiah. It was really quite fascinating. A reading is just a bunch of actors reading the play punctuated with a few dramatic actions. Basically, they want to produce the play off of the West End, and they're trying to get money to do it, so they do a reading in front of people with money to try and pique their interest. We got invited because the playwright is a Mormon who teaches at University of Utah who knows one of our professors personally and needed more bodies to make the little theatre look full.

Tuesday we went to see Oedipus at the National Theatre with Ralph Fiennes (most of you know him as Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies). It was very dramatic. They did some interesting things with the production too, like having everyone in modern business dress, and having a stage, empty except for a set of giant doors, that slowly rotated around.

Today we went to Canterbury. Which I guess makes us pilgrims just like the rest of the people in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. This is the city of Canterbury.

Here is the outside of the Cathedral. And don't be deceived. You think it looks big here, that's actually about only half the length. Past that tree, it just keeps going.It actually looks kind of like a Temple. Which makes sense, I suppose. Similar purpose and all.
The inside has beautiful vaulting and stained glass.
It was different from a lot of cathedrals I've visited. The architecture was not so simple. It had a lot more detail, and as you can see here, it also had pieces going crosswise that created a lot of interesting openings and shapes as you looked up. Also, rather than the whole floor being flat and on one level, there's a number of staircases all through the cathedral, leading upwards to the apse.
Canterbury Cathedral is of course most famous for being the site of the martydom of St. Thomast a Beckett. It was his death, and the subsequently reported miracles associated with his remains, that made the cathedral such a popular pilgrimage destination. This stone marks the location of Thomas' skull being quite brutally mangled by several swords.
Looking up from the center of the cross. It's really a very beautiful church.
Looking up the quire towards the apse.
An unusual and more recent stained glass window. I've never seen one with so much magenta colouring. And I really liked the light on the wall.
This candle marks the spot where the extremely elaborate bejeweled gold tomb of Thomas a Beckett stood for a long time.
Canterbury Cathedral is also the resting place of the Black Prince.
Typical England. Awesome old ruins in the middle of every day life. In this case, a parking lot behind the cathedral.
And of course the best part, we met Orlando Bloom!!


Okay, just kidding. He's actually a nice English boy named Jack who works at the fudge shop and unfortunately has a girlfriend. And yes, I did start up a conversation with "Has anyone ever told you you look exactly like Orlando Bloom?" and end it with "Umm, this is kind of wierd, but do you mind if I take your picture? I have this roommate who really likes Orlando Bloom..." so there you go Katie, just for you :D

Next we went to Chartwell, which is where Winston Churchill lived for many years. I'm beginning to like Churchill.

The house has excellent views. Unsurprising, considering Churchill's passion for painting.
The pond of fish. Churchill used to sit in that chair and feed them.

Golden Rose Garden
Among Churchill's many habits was bricklaying. Apparently. He built a good deal of this garden wall, as well as the playhouse for his daughters pictured below, called the "Mary-cot".

Oxford Girl (and Blenheim Palace)

Day 28

Wednesday we went to Blenheim Palace (that's blen-im -- actually, the name comes from a German village, but they say blin-tem) It belongs to the Duke of Marlborough (currently the 11th, I believe) having been built as a gift to the first duke after his remarkable military victories over the French in the War of Spanish Succession. That probably means more to some of you than it does to me :) Anyway, it's often considered as the finest palace of it's kind. It also has a number of famous (and enormous) tapestries depicting battle scenes. The place is huge, and very beautiful. An interesting fact: Winston Churchill was born here (I've seen the room. And locks of his hair). He was cousin to the duke.The land here was absolutely gorgeous. That's what I call a fairytale sky.

Hehe, I like this statue.

There gardens and fountains are all incredibly lovely.


There really is a Secret Garden.
Us being sneaky in the Secret Garden.
Pretty garden scene.

I just thought this road was funny. And it doesn't go anywhere.
Then we went to Oxford!!

Oxford University is made up of a number (38?) of colleges. You live, study, and are tutored in this college. It's a bit different from the system in the States. Oxford doubly so, since you don't have real classes. Just a tutor you meet with once a week to discuss and get new assignments, and then a big final exam at the end of your three years that decides if you get a degree. This is inside the quadrangle of Magdalen College (maud-lin).

Thoughtful in the cloister / courtyard / whatever. You're not allowed on any of the magnificent lawns here, by the way.
If you want to get a feel for Oxford, I think the sign says loads about their attitude.
I think this used to be a study hall, or classroom. Now it's the refectory. Very posh.
Apparently C.S. Lewis was a student here, and lived in this building. From left to right, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
We found a random bridge and decided to make some shadow art. I'm second from the left in our clump.
We decided to try punting, which is when you have a small, flat-bottomed boat in a shallow river, and you use a long pole to push along the bottom of the river bed to move the boat. We actually had two boats tied together, which made it a bit unwieldy. But Humphrey, our highly attractive Oxford punter guy, was a very nice chap and did a good job of it.
Me trying to punt. Humphrey was a good sport. I ran us into a lot of walls, but I didn't fall in!
All of us on our safe arrival after punting.
The Bodleian Library. Apparently, real Oxford students actually study in there, so we weren't allowed inside.
Here's one for you all to be jealous over. This is the Eagle and Child pub, fondly called the Bird and Baby. For years, it was the meeting place of the Inklings, a group of Oxford writers including J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who regularly met to discuss their writing. We got a really flirtatious bartender who guilted us into buying food there, and then tried to convince us we were wasting our chance of drinking in Europe (as the drinking age here is 18, three years younger than in the US).

This is us eating in the Rabbit Room, which is the actual room used by the Inklings (it's actually more like the hallway across from the bar leading to the back of the pub that happens to have some tables along the side, but still). Those pictures and plaques in the background are about the Inklings.
We also went to Evensong at Christ Church. It's like an evening mass, or something. They sing, and read prayers and such. They had some very pretty arrangements of scriptures.